Conventional content interfaces permit users to pan through content, such as a news article or a list of files. These interfaces typically operate in one of two ways. A first way pans based on the amount of content displayable to the user—for each user selection, the interface presents a next display worth of content. This can be thought of as a page-by-page progression, though the page is often based on the amount of content displayable to the user at the time rather than the content having been organized into pages independent of the presentation size. Thus, content presented on a small screen, in a small window, or with a low resolution may require many pages to fully represent. Likewise, large bodies of content may require many pages, even for large screens, large windows, or high resolutions. Not surprisingly, panning through content page-by-page is often slow and annoying for users.
A second way enables a user to vary how far the interface pans through the content based on some factor of the user's selection, such as how fast a user flicks her finger across a touch screen, touch pad, or mouse scroller. This second way permits users to move slowly or quickly through content but may stop at inconvenient points in the content, overshoot important parts of the content, or be difficult to use.